Beyond the realm of cash: street performers and payments in the online world

Abstract

Street performers are able to contribute to a fabric of a city’s creative dynamic. The exchange for money between a street performer and an audience is a changing landscape. As less cash is carried on people’s person and audiences want to participate in exchange, the industry is ripe for disruption. The paper uses a unique data set from the online busking platform ‘The Busking Project’ to analyse individual donations to 3757 active buskers. Using a Heckman selection model, we find that the number of fans does influence the number of donations and the artist’s genre matters for the likelihood of receiving donation and the amount received. Musicians are more likely to receive a donation; however, it is a smaller donation amount than other performers. The method of payment for receiving a donation and the anonymity of the donor also influences the amount received. The geographic location matters for receiving a donation but not the amount received.

Street performers and donations in an online environment in the wake of COVID-19

“…However, it appears that the ANOVA test results are primarily driven by donations occurring only after the pandemic announcement. This finding is also consistent with that in ( Elkins & Fry, 2021 ) who find that performers joining the busk.co platform after the pandemic announcement had a higher likelihood of receiving a donation (an odds ratio of 1.56).…”

“…This brings performers with large fan bases (number of “likes” on their profile) to the attention of visitors to the site first. This may, in part, underpin the finding in other research with individual, not time series, data from this platform ( Elkins & Fry, 2021 ) that the number of fans plays a role in both determining the likelihood of a performer receiving a donation and, given that one is received, on the value of the donation.…”

“…Whether this was either accelerating a move towards cultural entrepreneurship and the emergence of the artpreneur that was happening before the onset of COVID-19 or is particular to this platform is not clear. Previous research using individual level, not time series data, from this platform ( Elkins & Fry, 2021 ) found that artists who received donation(s) were more likely to have joined after the World Health Organisation pandemic announcement. Interestingly, that research also found that the offering of additional services such as albums for sale or availability for gigs did not influence either the likelihood of donation nor the amount of any donations made.…”

“…We will look specifically at movements over time in new performers joining the platform from November 26, 2015 and at donations – not sales of albums or employment (gig) offers – over our period by the public to performers active on the platform. This is in contrast to the analysis in ( Elkins & Fry, 2021 ) that is concerned with an in depth analysis at an individual performer level. The platform is global and thus donations may be made in any currency.…”

“…The COVID-19 pandemic has also accelerated artist's move toward virtual audience engagement through live performances and streaming on platforms such as Twitch and Instagram and paid-for performance gigs. For creative industries, using digital platforms as a method to create income is becoming the new normal ( Elkins & Fry, 2021 ; Regner, 2021 ; Tossato et al, 2019 ). While Patreon and Kickstarter have also been used to support artists ( Regner, 2021 ), other platforms such as the one in this study busk.co are more creative industry-specific and seek to provide the link to value creation and cultural entrepreneurship through connecting the artists and their fans.…”